Job 3:7

Behold, may that night be barren; may no joyful voice come into it.

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — Job pronounces this curse over the specific night of his birth, immediately following his request in 3:6 that the night be erased from the annual calendar. He speaks as a grieving patriarch, directing the imprecation against the temporal space of his own conception.

The words — The Hebrew `גַלְמ֑וּד` (gal.Mud) means barren, paired with `יְהִי` (ye.Hi) to command that state upon the night, while `רְנָנָ֣ה` (re.na.Nah) means a cry of joy, which `אַל־` (ʾal-) and `תָּבֹא` (ta.Voʾ) explicitly forbid from entering it.

The thread — The motif of permanent desolation and silenced celebration recurs in Isaiah 13:20, Isaiah 24:8, and Jeremiah 7:34, where divine judgment removes habitation and joyful noise from cursed places. These passages share Job’s lexical focus on the irreversible absence of life and celebration.

Why it lands — The text demands the night remain permanently desolate while barring any sound of celebration from it. A reader must acknowledge the precise grammatical split: barrenness is imposed as the night's condition, while joy is forbidden from crossing its threshold.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

הִנֵּ֤הhi.Nehthere!הַלַּ֣יְלָהha./Lay.lahthe/ night הַ֭הוּאHa./hu'<the>/ that יְהִ֣יye.Hilet it be גַלְמ֑וּדgal.Mudbarren אַל־'al-may not תָּבֹ֖אta.Vo'it come רְנָנָ֣הre.na.Naha cry of joyבֽוֹ׃v/oin/ it

King James Version

Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.

Cross-references

Isaiah 13:20 She will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there.
Isaiah 24:8 The joyful tambourines have ceased; the noise of revelers has stopped; the joyful harp is silent.
Jeremiah 7:34 I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of the bride and bridegroom, for the land will become a wasteland.”
Revelation 18:22 And the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will never ring out in you again. Nor will any craftsmen of any trade be found in you again, nor the sound of a millstone be heard in you again.